Cats and Cricket
by fringeperson
Summary: Haru's a great all-rounder, unfortunately, the king is more annoying than a bent umpire, so she runs for it. Disclaimer: I own exactly 0percent of Cat Returns.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"LET ME GO!" she screamed. It worked: they let her go to cover their ears, cringing from the high decibels.

She didn't need an invitation. She ducked out from between her captors and turned to run back the way they had dragged her, back towards her home. Her escape was arrested, however.

An arm caught her about the waist, and the instant she realised she wasn't on the ground, running, any more, she also realised that she had been slung over someone's shoulder. It wasn't exactly comfortable.

"PUT ME DOWN!" she yelled, thumping her fists against the back – the only available body part – of her new captor. This time, it didn't work. In fact, it earned her the goose-bump raising experience of feeling the hand that was holding her around her knees move up to her waist, never breaking contact.

"You CREEP!" her volume had barely lowered, but all the yelling and screaming was starting to make her a little hoarse. Her legs were free now though, so she took advantage and started kicking, a fine counterpoint to her already pounding fists.

She heard him sigh, and he stopped walking. She kicked harder, and then felt his hand move back down to her knees. Another hand was wrapping a rope around her ankles, which had been brought closer together by his hand being lower on her person.

"Coward," she said, not exactly quietly, when she could no longer move her feet and he was walking again.

"It is not cowardly to bind the feet of someone kicking you in the guts, babe, only weak to show the pain," answered her captor quietly, hefting her further over his shoulder, so that she hung by her hips.

"You're still a creep," she said, not at all enjoying her view of his lower back. All the blood was rushing to her head too, which didn't help either her mood or her headache. She kept hitting him.

He didn't answer, but his hand was around her bum again.

It was a sunny day – the kind of day people woke up to and just _knew_ it was going to be good – so when a large shadow fell over her, she turned sharply as far as she could. The shadow was cast by a large building, a castle really, raised in faded pink stone and surrounded by a moat of perfectly blue water.

"Oh no," she gasped, seeing it. With a last desperate effort, she brought her bound feet down hard on the soft front of the man carrying her, hitting the shoulder she wasn't hanging over when he bent slightly from the force, throwing herself away from him. The knot around her ankles wasn't impressive, but took a moment to undo. By the time she was on her feet and able to run again, she supposed that he must have recovered from her latest blows.

She didn't even look, just dropping again to avoid that arm catching her around the middle a second time. She rolled a couple of feet, then scuttled away on all fours until she judged herself to be safely away enough to be able to stand up and run properly.

There was her front door. Her hand found her key in her pocket, not slowing her step, and the metal shaft was shoved into its alcove. It turned, the door opened, she was in, and locked the door again, panting as she rested her head against the reassuringly solid wooden barrier.

"What did I do to deserve all this?" she asked herself as tears started to come, flowing over her cheeks until they fell to the floor. Sniffing hugely, she muttered to herself: "No good deed goes unpunished I suppose."

"Not true," answered a voice from behind her – inside her house. "People have gone their whole lives doing good deeds and hardly ever been punished for it."

She gasped and turned, afraid of whom it might be; she lived alone, there shouldn't have been anyone in her house, and she wasn't having a very good day as far as visitors went.

A sigh of relief escaped her lips. It was the cat she had helped earlier in the day. He was sitting on a ledge by a window that wouldn't open more than fifteen centimetres – explaining how he had gotten in, and relieving her that no one else would have been able to follow him. Then her relieved expression hardened again.

"What do you want?" she demanded, almost hissing the words when she wanted to yell. "I have been _thanked_ quite enough for one day."

"You mistake me," objected the cat, looking hurt. "I never told him what had happened. I intended only to give you a small gift, a token of how grateful I am, not get you into such trouble as you find yourself, truly," he insisted, lighting down from the ledge to curl apologetically around the young woman's ankles.

She relented and crouched to sit upon her heels, resting on the balls of her feet and caressing the fur of her visitor as he looked up at her with mismatched eyes.

"Alright, so who are you?" she asked.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"I am Prince Lune of the Cat Kingdom," answered the feline. "What's your name?"

"I am Haru Yoshioka, a nobody. A nobody, furthermore, who never wanted anything but to be allowed solitude and time with my paints and canvases," she answered. The news that she had rescued a prince had unbalanced her a bit, but she was no longer one to bow and scrape to the dignitaries. She had just been nearly carried away by one, and had been eager to get away. She didn't care if it was treason to hit that man, and she didn't care if she was a nobody – _no one_ touched her like that.

"You have interesting ways of demanding that solitude, Miss Haru," answered the prince. "To hit my father so resoundingly, it will be hard for me to thank you…"

Oh yes; that _man_ was the king, and the prince of the Cat Kingdom his son. It had come about in this way: the Queen of Cats had taken for her husband the youngest human prince, laid with him, and slept content in the knowledge that she would bear a royal litter within three months. While the queen slept, her new husband had escaped her kingdom and returned home, where his brothers had all agreed to wage war with the Cat Kingdom for the insult of the kidnapping and rape of their youngest brother by another monarch. The queen lived long enough to birth her kittens, but they had not yet opened their eyes when the brother's of her truant husband had entered her palace and killed her – at the expense of their own lives. Only the youngest was left to rule his kingdom, and that of the Cat Kingdom, for they recognised him as the father of the royal kittens, and therefore regent until the kittens were old enough to rule.

"I say, that's rather good, who was your model?" the cat prince asked, turning from Haru's petting to find some inspiration of how to thank his rescuer from the features of her home. His blue and red eyes had lit upon a painting of a white kitten sitting on a window ledge, staring out the window at the world beyond.

"Just a kitten I found in the street and let follow me home. I gave her a meal and she sat for me, conversation wasn't exactly required," Haru said, picking up the painting and turning it over. "Yuki," she added, finding the name of the feline written on the back – a detail she had thought might one day be important.

"Are you quite determined to be _alone_ with your work? Wouldn't you rather have company sometimes?" asked Lune, weaving his way between the fine works, stopping to stare at some of them.

"Company has a habit of wanting," Haru answered, brushing a wisp of brown hair back behind her ear. "Wanting conversation, wanting time, wanting me to do their portrait, wanting to share a bed," every reason was spat out, as though repulsive, and the last was filled with the greatest venom of them all.

"My father will come back for you," Lune said. "He came to your house for you before, and once he makes up his mind about something, he's a bit hard to dissuade, rather like mother in that respect I understand. At any rate, it would be best if you were not here when he comes back, I would hate the idea of you burning to death simply because you wouldn't leave the house."

"Thank you for your concern, Prince Lune," Haru said, not un-sarcastically, rolling her brown eyes at the idea. It didn't appeal to her that much either. "So," she added with an exasperated sigh. "What do you suggest, your highness?"

"The Bureau," he answered simply. "And out the window, I can smell him coming now."

Haru didn't waste time asking for an explanation. Everybody knew about the Bureau, it had been an institution of fine standing before the war, after the war however, it had been rather reduced. Now it was little more than a story told to children and a last hope for the desperate.

Perfect.

Haru fled to her bedroom, threw some personals into a bag and, locking the glass door to the small balcony behind her, climbed down the drainpipe and started running again.

It seemed a shame to her to leave her work behind, but apart from one or two pieces, most of them she knew weren't up to her standard. She could do better, but for so few of them was she actually able to achieve the quality she knew that she was capable of.

"LUNE! What are you doing here?" she heard the wretched man demand of the heir to one of his thrones.

"I came to thank the lady who saved my life today, but she isn't here, so I think that I shan't be either, good day father," the cat replied, and Haru saw him slip out her kitchen window as she herself rounded a corner into the park.

A smile, utterly rueful, touched her lips as she ran. His majesty didn't like it when his feline offspring crossed his path, and particularly hated it when they called him father. A fine way to put him in a temper and rage for a while before he started pursuing _her_ again.

The park was refreshing, and relaxing, and there were trees all over the place. Every third tree had at least one child trying to climb it for some reason or another. Haru stopped a moment to look up at the trees, and an idea presented itself.

Slinging her bag over her shoulder, Haru found the lowest branch and pulled herself up, then onto the next branch, and then the next, until she was up enough high enough that _that man_ wouldn't be able to follow her in a hurry. Haru then promptly reached for the branches of the next tree and made like a monkey from one tree to the next until she was nearly out the other side of the park.

From within the calm, shaded greenery of the tree's canopy's, Haru peered down and around, making sure that none of the king's men – or the king himself – were anywhere nearby to see her. Satisfied that there were no witnesses, Haru jumped down, landing on her feet, but her hands touched the ground an instant later, so it might be thought that she landed on all fours like a cat.

Haru straightened, checked her direction, and headed off down the street. Out of town. The Bureau was… hard to find wouldn't quite describe it, but it would be getting close. If you didn't know _where_ to look for it, then you could walk past their door a hundred times and not see it. Haru blessed her mother in her grave that she had always been very clear on that particular detail.

The young lady slipped down between a couple of houses and found the back streets – the places that had to exist, even if not everyone used them every day, or even ever. Checking the time and position of the sun, she headed east, between houses, down alleys, until she reached a dead end. On either side of her were garden walls, what was in front of her was a bit of left over brickwork from ages gone past.

She closed her eyes so as not to be distracted by what they were telling her, and stepped forward. It was as though the left over wall wasn't there. In fact, that was the truth of the matter, but people are often convinced by what they _think_ is real rather than paying attention to the actual reality. Before her now was an archway that led to a cobbled crescent, at the centre of which was a great pillar topped by a statue of avian nature – a crow possibly, or a magpie perhaps. Without any colour but the grey of the stone, it would be impossible to truly tell. All around were houses, all perfect and charming, and small. The size of doll's houses, which suited the occupant's well enough, since most of them _were_, according to the stories at least.

Only one house appeared to be occupied however, and over the door were written the words that Haru had been searching for: _The Cat Bureau_. With a mixture of relief and hesitancy, the young woman approached the small door and knocked.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The door opened in what would have been an impressive way if the door had dwarfed her, rather than the other way around. Light spilled forth from the grand entrance-way and Haru felt the inspiration of another painting spilling from her long-dormant muse as she witnessed the owner and proprietor of the Cat Bureau exit the building, back-lit as he approached her.

He was, of course, a doll; a figurine, a small statue – but he was also alive. How or why this happened, no one really knew. There was not one person who would be able to say with any certainty why some such creations of man came to life, and others did not, but that was the way of things.

It was Haru's considered opinion that looking for answers never brought any kind of happiness. Asking questions could be very healthy, but asking, "why is it this way?" – no, that wasn't any good to anyone. Some things just were, and it wasn't the place of anybody – and certainly not her – to question why.

Haru was an artist, and she knew that there was an Ultimate Creator. There had to be. Nothing as spectacular and complex as the world around her could have possibly happened by chance, any more than any of the paintings in her old home had happened by chance. Oh, some of them had seemed to create themselves, had flowed from the brush like she wasn't in control, but none of them had "just happened".

Standing on the cobbled court before her, the top of his hat at the height of her knee – or maybe just a little higher (an inch or so, nor more) – was the one whose help she had come seeking. Of course, now that she was here – in this place that was all but completely forgotten – her need for his help had diminished. The lunatic king would surely not be able to find her here, but would she be able to stay?

"Good day," she said politely, bowing to the orange-furred feline. For that is what he was, though he was dressed in the fine, powder-grey suit of a gentleman, this living doll was certainly very cat-like in face and feature.

"How do you do," he returned.

Haru almost melted at the sound of his refined British accent. Every girl had their weak point, and hers was accents. Some irritated her to no end, while others had her like a plate of butter left out in the sun. One such had almost convinced her to share his bed before her mind recognised the words that meant nothing compared to the sound of his voice. She'd clobbered him nicely and moved when that happened, determining to never let herself get into that position again. Now here she was lining herself up for _possible_ trouble in order to escape _definite_ trouble.

"I'm in a spot of bother, actually," she answered, her voice unconsciously taking a little of his accent into her own. "Owing to having saved a cat prince, the king decided to take me as his own, without asking. Now my home isn't the refuge it should and used to be."

The traditional lie of "I'm very well thank you," or the more casual "yeah, I'm good," or any other variant thereof would have been pointless. After all, if any of them were true, she would not be here. Oh, certainly she was healthy, or she wouldn't _have_ this interruption in her otherwise near-monastic solitude of life. If she wasn't healthy, she wouldn't have been fast enough to a) save Prince Lune's life, or b) whack the king hard enough to escape and make her own front door fast enough to get any kind of head start on his pursuit.

"You are welcome to stay here for as long as you like. The king is likely to forget by tomorrow of course," offered the gentleman cat with an incline of his handsome head.

"I wish I could believe that," Haru answered with a sigh. "I don't think that his majesty is likely to forget me any time soon."

Her host looked at her curiously, the question obvious in his face and bearing.

"I think I may have broken a rib or two, and certainly his majesty will be covered in bruises by tomorrow. I did _not_ go quietly," she explained. It was best to be slightly detached about it all. If she thought over the events of the day in relation to herself, she would probably break down. Safe though she probably was, breaking down was never a good idea.

"Well, please, do come in. His majesty is unlikely to find you here. I believe he has forgotten that the Bureau even exists – like so many people," that very last bit seemed tacked on, pensive, and regretful, as though the fact saddened him.

Haru blinked a couple of times as she looked at the door through which the gentleman-cat had just returned. She could see him removing top hat and tailcoat inside, and it did look very cosy, in an old-fashioned style and values sort of way. However, she had absolutely no idea how or even if she would be able to fit.

That wasn't the only thing – Haru had a couple of very simple rules by which she lived her hermitage of a life. Rule one: be healthy or end up dead. Ending up dead was going to happen one day anyway, but she had reasoned that as long as she was healthy, that "one day" would be a long time in coming. Rule two: never enter the house of someone if you don't know their name. Rule two was particularly aimed at men, and came into very strict use if they had an accent that… well, like this guy's.

Right now, Haru was thinking fast on both. She was healthy, and she would rather end up dead than as the king's mistress. She had come here seeking refuge, it had been offered, but rule two and the possible impossibility of actually _fitting in the house_ prevented her from taking advantage of it.

"Excuse me," she said, kneeling down in front of the door and peering in more intently. "But I don't see how I _can_ come in, and I don't even know your name," she added, trying to sound as though these were things that mattered in the same way breathing mattered – necessary points, but not ones that took a lot of thought to arrive at.

"Oh, how rude of me. I am Baron Humbert von Gikkingken, and you will shrink as you come in through the door – it's just a little spell that I've found useful over the centuries. Do you care for tea Miss–?"

"Haru Yoshioka," she supplied.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"And yes, I would love a cup of tea," she added, coming through the door and finding that – yes, she could fit very easily. It was a bit odd though, going through: being small on one side and large on the other and nothing but a spell in between.

"Milk or lemon?"

"That depends entirely on the tea," Haru answered, taking a seat by the fireplace and laying her bag down by her feet. "Some blends need milk, others benefit from lemon. What flavour of tea is it?"

"My own personal blend," answered the doll, handing her a cup and setting out a tray of customary additives on the coffee table that sat neatly between the two fireside chairs. Milk, lemon, sugar, and more hot water – in case it was too strong or became cold. "I even grew the leaves myself."

Haru breathed in the scent of the scalding hot drink, and appreciated the pattern on the cup while she waited for it to cool to a temperature that wouldn't burn her tongue. It was delightfully painted, but it wasn't the traditional floral or repeated pattern around the rim that is the usual of teacups. Instead, it was men playing cricket, wearing the whites of a test match.

Prepared to accept that the tea might have cooled enough for her to drink it safely, she tasted it. Surprised, she tasted it again.

"The finest tea that I have ever tasted," she declared quietly. "All it needs to be the very best, I think, is a drop of milk," the young woman added, adding the prescribed dose of cool white liquid. Tasting the now slightly altered drink, she sighed, closing her large brown eyes in contentment. "Perfect," she said.

Baron smiled. He didn't need to know anything else about her; she had just proved to him that she was a lady of taste and refinement whatever else she may also be.

Of course, while he didn't _need_ to know any more, he very much _wanted_ to.

"You said you saved a cat prince," he began. It was safe conversation starter – her reason for coming to him, and would not be considered prying. "Might I ask, why, how and which one?"

Haru smiled over her teacup.

"Of course," she answered, a gleam in her eye at the slight tease. Normally she wouldn't be so playful in conversation, normally she wouldn't converse, but his accent made her want to talk, so that she could hear his voice again. "But would you mind if I answered in the reverse order? It will make more sense I think."

He nodded in acquiescence, and Haru began the tale.

"It was Prince Lune. I was heading back home with a bag full of brand new paints, when I saw him looking up and down the street – the way children are taught to look out for traffic – then, he started to cross. I see an ambulance come screaming down the street, and I know the cat is going to get hit if he doesn't move fast, but he's still just trotting calmly across. So I run, grab him by that bit of skin at the back of his neck, and we're on the other side of the street just as the ambulance whips past. As for why I did it… At the time it was just: I'm not going to let that dumb cat get itself killed by a vehicle meant for saving lives. It's a long thought for a split-second decision I suppose, and not incredibly delicate, but that's all it was. I wasn't going to let something stupid turn into irony for the ill-bred."

Haru leant back and took another sip of tea. That had been more long-winded that she was used to, and she had been screaming people's ears off earlier in the day. It felt almost like a lifetime ago, that it had all happened. Perhaps it was the soothing, slightly otherworldly feeling of sitting in the interior of The Cat Bureau.

"You seem to have had quite the day, Miss Yoshioka," Baron said, also relaxing into his high, wing-backed chair, though his emerald green eyes danced with contained mirth. "What ever will you do, now that the excitement of it all has been escaped?"

"I'm an artist, Baron von Gikkingken. I need peace, not excitement," Haru answered. Completely straight, not stern or laughing; she hadn't noticed the mirth in the eyes of her host; she was too busy staring at the dancing flames in the fireplace.

"A painter, yes? You said you had just bought some paint when you spotted Lune," Baron replied, continuing the conversation, leaving his private joke for a private moment.

"That's right. I had to leave my work behind, the king broke through my front door and I had to climb down from my bedroom balcony."

There was sadness in her voice, a longing and regret, much like there had been in Baron's when he had said that the people had forgotten about him, and he understood.

"If you like, we can retrieve some," he offered. He had put his tea down and moved to wrap two gloved hands around one of hers.

"That's very sweet, but no. His majesty has probably already taken them all hostage, and if he hasn't, then my neighbours will raid my house for their favourites. I always mean to make gifts of them, or sell them, but then I just pile them up and… No, let them be taken out into the world. Besides, it would be too risky for me to go back," Haru answered, turning her attention from the fireplace to his very green eyes. His very green, very sincere, very kind and earnest eyes.

He nodded his understanding.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Haru slept deeply and without interruption. Baron made sure of it.

He had shown her to a bedroom in the back of the house. It had never been used, but all dolls' houses had at least one bedroom, usually very finely furnished, and the Bureau was no exception. For himself, he had banked the fire and, sitting in his chair, returned to his porcelain state, his glass eyes sparkling in the slight glow of the fire.

He was startled out of his own stoic position by a tapping at the window above. It was the bird statue, come to life to pay him a visit.

"How is she?" he asked, perched upon the back of the chair Haru had been occupying earlier.

"Remarkably well, given the situation and circumstances," Baron answered, running his fingers through the fur between his ears, as humans are sometimes inclined to pass their hand through their hair when they are worried or thinking.

"Is the cricket match still on in the Cat Kingdom? I think it would do her good to go; it might take her mind off her recent trouble and loss," added the like-feline statuette.

Toto nodded. "Tomorrow with be day three of the test match between the Persians and the Russian Blues, or there's the one day match, which is gingers against greys."

Yes, cricket teams in the Cat Kingdom were selected based on breed, rather than nationality – all cats were subjects of the Cat Kingdom after all, so nationality _couldn't_ be a factor. Baron had once been asked to play for the gingers, but had turned it down, based on the fact that he wasn't actually a real cat.

"I will need to find gloves for her, or she'll start screaming about paws, and I had better find my pocket watch, to make sure we get back on time," the gentleman said to himself when Toto had returned to his pedestal for the night.

The next morning, Haru put a stumbling block in the Baron's plans to distract her.

"I confess to finding cricket less interesting when the team that I support isn't playing," she said, slightly apologetically. "Furthermore, I know exactly what will happen to me if I set foot in the Cat Kingdom, and I don't find it all together appealing."

Baron bowed to the lady's preference. She wanted to paint, and had the tools to build her canvases if he was able to supply the materials. A quick trip into the city with Toto, and Baron returned with the rest of Haru's own painting supplies – and the sad news that her prediction had come true: all of her paintings were gone.

Haru had just smiled and begun the task of preparing her canvas, when she noticed something that hadn't happened.

"Baron, shouldn't I have returned to my own size when I walked _out_ of your door again?" she asked.

"Oh, no Miss Haru. When you return to your own world you will, but the purpose of the spell on my door is to make your stature most convenient to your surroundings," the fired clay figurine explained, raising his voice to be heard outside while he was inside. He was slightly surprised by the question, but then, he knew the nature of the spell and hadn't really explained it very well the previous night.

"Oh, I suppose that makes sense," she said quietly, staring down at her art supplies, which had also shrunk.

"Hey Baron!" a rough male voice called from the archway that led to the worlds beyond.

Haru looked up sharply. She was still not entirely certain of her safety, even if this place was a nearly forgotten refuge. Seeing a gargantuan cat of globular proportions and pale fur, the woman relaxed and turned back to her canvas. It wasn't the king; she didn't have to worry.

"Muta, good to see you," returned the figurine as he exited the Bureau. He was dressed differently. No longer wore he the refined suit and tie of the afternoon and evening before. Now, it was cricket whites. "You've come to see if you can best me this time I hope?"

"Of course," answered the large cat.

Haru could see now that this Muta was wearing the "baggy green" cricketer's cap and, almost indistinguishable from his pelt, the knitted vest. He was also carrying a pair of shin pads under one arm.

Baron set up the wickets, allowing Haru to see that there were some appropriate lines painted on the cobbled ground. He also produced a small red ball.

"Toto, if you would oblige please," Baron called up to the crow sitting on the pedestal central to the court.

The bird nodded, and surprised Haru by gripping the column in his claws and, beating his wings powerfully, _moved it_ to the side of the court furthest from the Bureau before gliding down to take up the position of umpire.

"I can't hold a bat, and I certainly couldn't throw the ball," he explained to Haru when she looked questioningly at him. "But I do love the game."

She nodded her understanding. Cricket, in her opinion, was the only sport worth watching. Oh, certainly a few others were fun to play as well, but cricket was the only one worth taking time out of the day to sit down and just watch.

Muta had an excellent bowling arm, particularly around the wicket, but Baron was a superior batsman and had scored almost a century when he was finally bowled out. Haru "ooh"ed in sympathy, that he got out just one run away from the spectacular score.

Then they switched, and it was Muta up to bat, while Baron bowled fast, with occasional attempted "yorkers". Muta managed to get at least a single off every ball though, and without fielders or a wicket keeper to catch or run him out, he got away with it. Until, going for his ninety-ninth run, he hit the ball in Haru's direction.

She looked down, surprised to find the red ball beside her and, seeing Muta still a fair distance out of his crease threw the ball at the stumps he was running towards – where Baron stood beside Toto.

"Looks like he might finally beat you this time Baron," Haru could hear Toto saying.

"There's goes my perfect record," the figurine sighed over-dramatically. It was clear that he didn't really mind.

Everyone stopped and stared when the small red ball hit the stumps, Muta still a metre from his crease. Everyone except Haru, that is. She had returned to her painting: a man jumping to catch a little red ball, wearing cricket whites. His head was tilted back, watching the ball, so onlookers couldn't see the catcher's face, but she hadn't painted very much yet, just the skin tones of the arms and neck, and the red of the ball.

"I take that back Baron, you win by one run. Muta, you're out," Toto said, surprised at the words issuing from his beak.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"I am _not_," objected Muta, marching into his crease, his large belly pulled up into his chest in an attempt to become even more intimidatingly large.

"Yes you are, you were outside the crease when the _ball_ hit _bails_ off the _stumps_. That's _out_," said Toto, indicating with a gentle sweep of his wing the afore-mentioned bails that were both lying innocently on the cobbles beside the stumps they traditionally rested on top of, as well as the red ball that had caused the change.

"Yeah, but who threw it? Last time I looked, there wasn't anyone on the field," Muta persisted in his objection. "And if there were no fielders, it can't have been out."

Haru winced. Alright, so she had been aiming for the stumps, and she knew she had been good at cricket when she played with the other kids in the street before the war, but that had been more than ten years ago. She hadn't actually expected to get the rotund yet agile cat _out_.

Getting up – she had been kneeling on the ground as she painted – she walked up to the company, eyes on the ground as she wondered what she could possibly say.

"I threw it," she said, looking up from the ground, then from face to face. They were all staring at her now. "Sorry, I didn't mean to ruin the game… I just… I missed it, I suppose," added the brown-haired young woman apologetically.

Muta "hmph"ed, but relented. Saying "That's alright, you're allowed, but it means you're up to bat," handing over the cane-handled willow-bladed implement.

Haru accepted it and looked to the crease while Baron set the stumps and bails to rights once more.

"I don't have any padding, so you're either going to have to share, or bowl slow," Haru said. She hadn't moved.

Baron handed over his gloves and pads graciously. No one was surprised to find that his gear was just a little big for her – he was half a head taller than she was since she had shrunk – but it would do, and Haru limbered up as she headed for the other end.

"Now I just hope I don't break any windows," Haru muttered to herself as she waited for the ball. Last time she had played, windows had been left broken all over the street, some from her batting, some from others.

Baron bowled first, and came at her with a fast inswinger. Her response was to drive. She winced at the sound of shattering glass.

"_That_," she said, "is why I don't bat."

"You have a habit of breaking windows, Miss Haru?" Baron asked as Muta let himself into the whitewashed house to find the ball that had broken one of the upper-storey windows.

She nodded, a red glow about her cheeks and ears.

"Then perhaps we had better call it a day, you have your art waiting for you after all," the gentleman cat said as Muta reappeared in the glassless window, holding up the red ball in his paw.

"Chicky, if you can pull shots like that every time, you should play professionally," yelled the large white cat happily as he returned once more to the court. "Hey, what's going on? Why're you packing up Baron?"

"For the sake of the windows, and because Miss Haru wants to finish her painting, I thought we had better call it a day," answered the orange cat, pulling up the stumps from the bowler's end.

"Fair enough, but I'd like to send at least one delivery down her way before you do please," Muta said, indignant that he had been left out of the decision making process.

"Miss Haru?" Baron called out.

"I heard," she answered. She had been unstrapping the pads, but now she laced them back up. "It's fair enough, but just one ball please Mister Muta. It must be past time for lunch."

Muta pumped an arm up and down once, the sporting man's "yes!" of triumph. Receiving a nod from the young lady that she was ready, the fat cat came around the wicket and released a fast leg-spinner.

Haru cut it. The ball ricocheted off the frontage of one house and just barely missed another window before falling at last to the cobbles.

"Wa-HOO!" exclaimed Muta, bounding after the ball on all fours, like a happy puppy after a stick. "The girl can _bat_!"

"Yes she can," Haru said quietly, bending once more to remove the pads. "She just doesn't much." Removing the gloves and putting them, with the shin pads, under an arm, she proceeded to pocket the bails and pull up the stumps. She was just wondering how she was going to carry it all when another pair of hands took the pads from her.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Baron smiled slightly down at her as he reclaimed his batting gear, and felt the reward of her answering smile. It was like the sun coming out from behind a cloud: she became more radiant, almost glowing. That shy little smile that slowly grew as he watched, and walked her to his door.

Suddenly the smile disappeared, and a curled finger came up to her chin as her brow furrowed. Haru "hmm"ed.

"I'll need eggs, butter, cheese, a dish and oven of course, and some kind of meat or vegetables always makes a quiche better…" she said quietly, to herself obviously but Baron was close enough to be able to hear her musings.

"What's this about a quiche?" he asked, keeping his voice down, in case Muta heard – his appetite was famous with anyone and everyone who knew him.

"Lunch, a person's got to eat, Baron, and quiche is a quick, light meal that is both healthy and tasty," Haru answered, still thinking. Of course, if she were back home, she would know exactly where to find all the things she had just listed, but she didn't know if her host kept such culinary basics. Since he was essentially a doll, he probably didn't need to eat, but she did.

Baron nodded his understanding. Muta would be ready to eat too – of course, the large cat was _always_ ready to eat. It was a common misconception that living creations – such as Toto and himself – didn't need to eat, even by some of the creations themselves, but they lasted longer if they put something _into_ the bodies they wanted energy to come _out of_. He showed her to his kitchen and found aprons for them both.

Half an hour later, Muta's nose appeared in the kitchen door, which meant the rest of him couldn't be far behind.

"Hello Mister Muta," Haru said when she spotted that small pink triangle and creamy-furred muzzle. A cheeky smile dominated her face. "It's almost ready, so if you could set the table, that would be helpful."

The nose disappeared and the clatter of cutlery and crockery could be heard from the dining room. Haru took the quiche from the oven and asked Baron to slice it up while she dished the vegetables: carrots and spinach. It was a plain meal, but it would be tasty. Muta was just filling the water glasses when Baron and Haru joined him, each carrying two plates – their own, as well as Muta's and Toto's.

"Looks good, Chicky," Muta said, sitting himself down on – Haru was surprised to see – a reinforced chair. Of course, the cat's girth was impressive; the chair would _have_ to be reinforced if it wasn't human-sized.

She just smiled to herself as she put his plate down in front of him, refraining from making any kind of comment, particularly the size of portion Baron had served to the already large cat.

Toto and Baron didn't need much, their slivers of quiche barely an inch wide, and the vegetable portions shrunken to match. Haru had a slice of quiche like others would have a slice of cake, only a little wider to make up for the eggy meal being flatter than cake. Muta had the rest. Two thirds of the fluffy yellow dish were on his plate, _and_ half the vegies.

"I thank the ultimate creator, for giving me friends, cricket, and quiche," Haru said quietly, bowing her head over her food before picking up her fork and tucking in.

"Indeed," Baron added, a post-fix to Haru's saying grace, like some would say "Amen" after a prayer.

"So Chicky –" Muta started, reaching for the salt.

"Haru," Baron interrupted, a warning in his tone. "Miss Haru, Muta. Her name isn't _'Chicky'_," he said, realising that he hadn't actually introduced his guest to his friend.

Muta pulled a face at Baron before continuing with what he had been going to say.

"Miss Haru," he said, starting again with a deliberate stare at his oldest friend. "What other talents are you keeping to yourself? Cricket, cookery, what else?"

"I paint," Haru said, loading her fork with greens. "And I sometimes save princes and escape kings."

"That was _you_?" Muta demanded, forgetting momentarily about his loaded fork. "I saw his majesty carrying you over his shoulder. Oh, the look on his face when you kicked him in the nuggets! I was laughing for hours after that. You're quite a mover Chi- Miss Haru." He'd caught the warning look from Baron just when he was about to call her Chicky again.

Haru blushed at both the complement, and Baron's behaviour. She wasn't really used to men, or males of any species, and here she was sharing a table with three such figures. She finished her meal as quickly as she could, though still politely, before she excused herself to get on with her painting.

"Of course Miss Haru, and don't worry about the dishes," Baron said, resting a hand on her wrist to stop her from trying to tidy up after herself.

Muta's eyes followed Haru out of the room. Toto was watching Baron as the porcelain cat-man toyed with his fork, his own green eyes on the nearly clean plate before him.

"You like her, don't you Baron?" Muta asked quietly when the door between them and Haru had been shut for nearly two minutes.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"Miss Haru is a fetching young woman with taste, and a strong will. What is not to like?" Baron answered, refusing to catch the other meaning in Muta's question.

"Well, if you aren't interested, then I'll try romancing her," Muta said, very deliberately, baiting his friend into reacting. "The girl's a peach."

Baron's green eyes flashed almost dangerously. "You will not," he stated, rising from his place at the table. "You have _three_ wives, if you recall, Muta. You won't do that to Miss Haru."

Muta smiled a smarmy, self-satisfied and slightly grating smile. Having three wives was a perfectly acceptable thing among cats, four might be going a bit far, but three was perfectly all right. The impressive fatso also had close on fifty offspring; not all of them were kittens any more either. Of course, he probably wasn't the only husband his tabbies had, but that didn't bother him any more than it bothered them to know that he had other wives. The social structure of the Cat Kingdom was very much a "what you want to make of it" type of lifestyle. If a cat wanted monogamy, that was fine, but if another wanted "free love", then that was fine too.

Baron and Muta had been friends almost as long as they had been aware of themselves, and they had long agreed to disagree on this point, but Baron had never stood aside and just _let_ his friend woo another innocent, and he certainly wouldn't allow him at Haru that way.

"Besides," he continued, collecting the used dishes. "She's human, none of us are in any position to court her."

"I don't think that's going to stop the butterball, Baron," Toto chipped in, not caring if he insulted the other cat at the table.

"Hey!" Muta objected, resenting the slur on his size. "Chicken-wings is right though," he added, sneakily. "I'll back off for you, Baron, but not for her species. I'll just take her for a nice little stroll around the Cat Kingdom, and she's fair game by dawn."

"Has it occurred to you that she isn't interested in any of that, fatso?" Toto asked. "You said, after all, that you had seen her kick the king in – what was it again? Oh yes, the nuggets. I'd think that meant she isn't interested in getting dragged off to be someone's wife."

With that, Toto let himself out and returned to his pillar in the courtyard, trading the gloss of black feathers for the grey of stone once more.

"Worm-breath," Muta growled in response to being called fatso, but his shoulders had slumped. "Hmph, no. Four wives would be getting greedy anyway, and I don't feel like getting pummelled like she did the king. Alright, I leave her to your cold graces Baron, but try and warm up, yeah?"

Baron snorted quietly. Cold graces, what a thing to say about a friend, but he knew it was true. He'd never been one for romancing, too proper and polite to invade upon the space of the gentle sex and make such propositions as an admirer might who wished to become more intimate with the object of admiration.

"AAARRH!"

The cry came, in Haru's voice, from the front room of the Bureau, where she had gone to work on her painting.

Muta and Baron were through the door without any more thought given to the young woman's single status, thinking only what it could be that was causing her to scream.

"So _this_ is where you were hiding, my pretty," came the ugly, slimy voice of his majesty the king.

"How did you find me here?" Haru demanded, struggling for all that she was worth.

He had put his arm in through an upper window, and had gathered up her slim, shrunken form easily in one large fist.

"Someone was kind enough to tell me that your house had been visited by a crow and a cat in a suit. Everyone remembers the stories about the Cat Bureau, Babe," answered the smarmy king, pulling her out the window and looking at his little prize. "Now, since you object to being my queen, I think I'll make you my kitten instead."

Haru screamed again as she was carried through the king's conjured portal to the Cat Kingdom. Humans didn't have magic, but the king had taken possession of the mystical stone that granted the rulers of the Cat Kingdom the power to move between the worlds at will.

"Toto, wake up! We're going to need your help!" Baron called as he ran for the shrinking entrance. If it closed before he got to it, both he and Muta would be able to conjure another, but it would take time. Time that they probably didn't have.

Toto swooped down from his perch. Baron jumped on the bird's back and Muta was grabbed up in the strong bird's claws. They just made it through the portal before it closed behind them.

"I don't like being here," Toto confessed as he flew on, following the shape of a large shaggy cat that was towing a young woman behind him. It could only be Haru and the king.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

His majesty had ordered his guards to entertain Miss Haru until dawn, when they were to let her into the maze that led to the portal to the human world. The burly cats had been more respectful of their captive than the king, and had asked her what she would enjoy.

"Can you bat?" she asked.

The faces of the guards lit up. Cricket, a winner everywhere.

Haru was given the ginger team, while the informal "palace guard" team assembled with their gear to bat.

She was content to let the team's other bowlers go first, taking up position in silly-mid-on for the first over, then long on for the second over. For the third over, she bowled. On almost every delivery, she got the receiving bats-cat out. She came up on side, and bowled fast spinners. The cats weren't used to it. They didn't have fingers to curl around the ball like she did.

One of the gingers bowled another over. Then Haru was called up to bowl again – to get the _rest_ of the opposing team out. The gingers let her bat first, reasoning that if she was good, they would win very quickly, and if she wasn't, they had other bats-cats that would be able to make the few runs required to win the game.

The other bats-cats weren't needed, and tea was called. It was a grand affair, but Haru couldn't eat anything – unable to bring herself to eat something that stared up at her from the plate. Raw fish had never been appealing to her, even as sushi.

Music started up, and a ginger approached her. Haru thought at first that he might have been on the team, but he was wearing the mask of an entertainer.

"Care to dance?" he asked, offering his gloved hand.

"I'd only break your toes," she said. "I'm a really meowsy dancer. OH!" she covered her mouth. She had meant to say lousy, but it had come out meowsy. She wondered what else had changed about her.

"Trust me," the masked ginger said, slipping his fingers around hers – which were starting to get shorter and clawed.

The music was sweet, and Haru was surprised to find herself dancing gracefully with this strange cat when she realised whom it had to be. After all, what other cat had fingers?

He was guiding her closer to the window, and was almost there when the guards noticed the stranger. They were surreptitiously picking up their weapons and moving towards the dancing couple when Muta burst through the main curtained door.

"Why wasn't I invited!" he yelled, laying into the nearest guard, and cake, at the same time. The distraction more than sufficient to cover his friend's exit.

"Jump," Baron whispered urgently to Haru, tugging her towards the window. "Toto's just outside," he added, seeing the shock and fear in the lady's lovely brown eyes.

Haru jumped. Baron followed. Muta made a mess of the palace security.

"How bad is it?" Haru asked the Baron as Toto flew them to the exit tower.

"Short fur, ears, tail, nose," Baron said. "You're still fetching, if that's any kind of solace," he added, straining the words out. He wasn't used to being so forward, and it showed.

"Thank you Baron, but no, it isn't the most comforting thought," Haru answered.

"There's something going on down in the maze," Toto said, swooping a little lower to see.

"It's Lune and the king!" Haru cried, surprised to see them. "And that looks like Yuki," she added to herself, spotting the white feline that was running along the walls of the maze from the castle to the two royal cats.

The king and his son were fighting. Rather than claws, they were using broadswords, and it looked like Lune was winning.

"Toto, you get Miss Haru to the exit, I'm going to help the prince," Baron said, dropping from the crow's back.

"Got it!" answered the airborne living statue.

Haru wasn't exactly ecstatic about being left behind, but at the same time, getting out was important. She couldn't – simply _wouldn't_ – live the rest of her life as a cat. She held tightly to Toto's back where the wings sprouted from his shoulders as he sped even faster towards, then up _inside_ the tower. With an explosion of water, they left the Cat Kingdom, Cat Paw Lake, and Haru's slightly cat-like appearance all behind.

Toto had to land quickly as Haru was also returning to her regular height, no longer effected by the spells of the Bureau or the Cat Kingdom.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

"This is _treason_!" yelled the king, fighting his oldest son in the maze.

"You are no longer mentally stable enough to hold _one_ throne, and certainly not two. Father, you _must_ renounce your position. For your own good as well as that of your subjects," Lune answered, locking his sword against his father's and forcing the older cat back. The king was larger, but the prince was all sinew and lean muscle from being raised in the military of his kingdom.

"You just want the babe for yourself, I should have known when I saw you at her house! She's going to be _my_ pretty kitty, not yours," returned the king, thrusting away at his son's sword with surprising strength for an old king.

"No father, Miss Haru will not be _anyone's_ kitty," Lune said. The cat-prince's voice was dangerously calm, and his eyes as hard as steel.

Baron landed.

The king did _not_ appreciate the doll's excellent aim; the porcelain figurine had touched down on his neck, forcing the head and the rest of the body to go down with the weight of so much living clay.

"Lune!" a voice, female, called from the top of the wall.

The prince and Baron turned to see who had spoken; even the king looked up a little from his position with his furry face in the dirt.

"Oh Lune, I'm so glad you're alright!" It was the white cat, Yuki. Haru had identified the innocent feline correctly from the air. When Lune had returned to his own kingdom after visiting Haru, he had searched for the kitten that he had seen painted in her house. She worked as a kitchen maid in the castle, and it had been easy for him to request some of her time. It had been even easier for them to fall in love.

Lune handed his sword to the Baron and held his arms open wide to welcome the snow-coloured tabby that had overtaken his heart.

The elegantly dressed gentleman held the broadsword casually, with the tip resting gently, threateningly, dangerously, against the corner of his majesty's left eye. He was more intent upon his pocket watch than the figure he had pinned to the ground.

"Welcome, your majesty, to the life of a cat," said the Baron. He had been silent for several minutes, listening to the prince and his fiance making sure that the other was alright and occasionally glancing up, watching them being so happy together. He had broken his silence when his watch told him that dawn had occurred.

"I don't think that your human subjects will let you stay in power for much longer, considering the now permanent change," he added, slipping his watch back into his pocket. The statuette then bent to relieve the insane hairball of his sword before stepping off him, and, taking _both_ swords with him, headed for the central tower exit, kicking over false walls as he went. He did this partly because he could, but also because their presence insulted his sense of fair play.

It was easier to run up the stairs than walk them. If he walked, he might start to get tired and feel the strain, but running, the stairs just flew away beneath and behind him. He was at the top and out of the Cat Kingdom without any further trouble.

Toto and Haru were waiting for him.

"Where's the old marshmallow?" asked the crow, his tone conversational rather than troubled. After all, Muta lived in the Cat Kingdom, if he wasn't coming, that was fine, but it had been preying upon the stone bird's mind that the old fatso might have been captured.

"Surely you know better than to worry about Muta," Baron returned with a raised brow and a particular _look_ in his very green eyes.

"True," said Toto, cleaning the primary feathers of his right wing.

"What about the king?" Haru asked, afraid that he would come after her again.

"A cat for the rest of his life, however long that may be. I think Lune will be taking over the Cat Kingdom, though I really don't know about your home town," answered the Baron, thrusting the swords into the earth by the lake that was the pathway to the Cat Kingdom for those without the power to summon portals.

Haru relaxed. Really properly relaxed, for the first time in what felt like ages but had really only been a couple of days.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

In fact, Haru became so relaxed so quickly that she collapsed unconscious on the grass.

"Oh dear," said Baron quickly, genuinely concerned and rushing to the young lady's side. The grass was soft and thick, so that he was too small to catch her wasn't a particular problem. He stood in shock for a moment, looking down on her face.

"Seems to glow with peace, doesn't she?" Toto commented softly, hopping up beside the cat. "It would almost be a shame to wake her up, but I suppose we must, to make sure that she's alright."

Baron brushed a little of Haru's brown hair off her cheek softly. He stepped back quickly when she turned her face fully towards him, her eyes still shut, and a small smile on her soft features, as though she were reacting to something nice in a dream.

"No," he answered tentatively. "I don't think we should wake her. Miss Haru will be fine, but I think I shall keep watch over her all the same. One never can tell when something unpleasant will show up."

"Quite," agreed the bird, before he took off and circled above the girl and figurine a couple of times before calling down "It looks all clear!" after which he wheeled and headed back to the refuge.

"It is truly remarkable," Baron mused, sitting down beside Haru's sleep-softened face. "I would never have believed it of myself, but after such a short acquaintance I find that I have grown accustomed to your face. Furthermore, I expect that I will miss you terribly when you leave. What shall we do? A hermit and a bachelor really have no business with each other."

Haru's features scrunched up, and she groaned quietly as one who does not want to wake up.

"Be still, there is no need to wake," the statuette murmured, stroking her forehead gently with the back of his gloved hand.

Haru stilled, and for a few minutes, she just slept, with the Baron watching over her.

Her brown eyes snapped open, and she blinked a couple of times, surprised to be so suddenly awake. It was the sound of rustling cloth that had woken her – the sound of someone removing an item of clothing. In her book, that was always a sound to be wary of. When she looked around, however, she saw that it was the Baron taking off his jacket and searching the pockets, even shaking the piece of dress.

"Have you lost something?" she asked, her voice quiet from still being sleepy.

The half-cat figure of living clay jerked at the sound of her voice and turned sharply.

Haru had propped herself up on her elbow to search for the source of the sound that had woken her, and he thought she looked somehow softer around the edges. Her hair was just a little messy from sleep, and her face still had that luminescent quality that Toto had previously observed – utter peacefulness.

Baron put his tailcoat back on. He had been trying to find his pocket handkerchief, to dampen and blot against Miss Haru's forehead, simply because – for some reason he could not account for – he wanted to touch her _once_ more before they had to say goodbye. Dancing with her had been his way of helping her to escape, bringing her closer to the window without too much suspicion, but he had found that he enjoyed holding her.

"It doesn't matter," he said, smiling for her as convincingly as he could. "I meant to tell you before, you're a very elegant dancer, why did you say that you weren't?"

"Because I never have been," Haru answered, lying back down again, staring at the clouds in the early morning – slightly pink and glowing. "I highly suspect that having a tail helped in regards to that particular matter. For that matter Baron, why the deception? If you had just told me from the beginning, I would have run for the window and jumped onto Toto's back."

"It's, it's…" Baron rubbed the back of his neck, his green eyes looking for an answer somewhere in the surrounding scenery. He sighed. "It's sort of because I told Muta that he wasn't allowed to woo you into becoming his fourth wife. Some cats' morals are very loose, and Muta is almost as loose as a cat can get," the statuette explained, slightly ashamed to be revealing any of that small, private conversation.

"Oh _that_," she said, conveying both understanding and dismissal of what had been set before her. "Toto was right, if Muta had tried anything I would have beaten him up in much the same manner as I had the king."

Baron stared, open mouthed, and the tall young woman who was spread out on the grass before him, gazing happily at the clouds as she shocked him.

"I listened at the door," she explained, lifting her head to look at the doll that had saved her from being stuck forever as a cat.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

"You –" the orange cat could hardly believe his ears.

Haru nodded, a slightly silly smile on her face.

"That's how the king was able to grab me, I was a bit distracted by your general silence to notice his arrival," she admitted, sitting up properly to look down at her diminutive hero. "What did Mister Muta mean by your cold graces? You were warm when you were holding me back there."

"Dancing isn't… it's different. I'm not normally so forward, invading a lady's personal space like that, but when you're dancing, you _have_ to. Muta might say I'm too polite and proper. Admirers generally have to be expressive of their admiration, and that's just not something I'm practiced in," he said, sitting down on the grass in front of her, not looking up.

Nothing but the sound of birds waking up could be heard for a long time, then, when the sun was well above the horizon, Haru broke the silence of the woodlands – which wasn't really silence anyway, but she added her voice to the others.

"Can we go home now, Baron?"

"Yes, Miss Haru, you don't have to worry about the king any more, so I expect that you can return to your own life again," answered the statuette, mishearing the "we" for "I".

"I meant to the Bureau. If you don't want me there, I understand of course," she added quickly, not wanting to invade the privacy of the statuette that had hosted her.

"I thought you enjoyed the solitary life," Baron commented, stunned and while not unwilling to absorb this information, a little unable to believe it.

"Not particularly, I just wanted peace to paint in, without people forever demanding my time and distracting me from my work. I suppose I'm not allowed to go back though, since I no longer have a problem with his majesty," Haru said, almost wishing that she did, just so that she would have an excuse to go home with the figurine sitting in front of her.

Baron thought about this, knowing that he had good grounds to answer both yes and no to her wanting to come back to the Bureau with him, but he wanted to see her smile every day for as long as he could. He had grown accustomed to her face.

"Now that his majesty is a cat, he will be able to get away with a lot more by human standards: sitting on the window and watching you dress, for example," the doll shuddered at the thought – a peeping tom, grinning as he watched his Haru – wait, _his_ Haru?

"Miss Haru, I insist upon you coming back to the Bureau. We'll go via your old home to collect your belongings, and install you properly and permanently in one of my spare rooms," said the Baron decisively, his decision made and his resolve firm.

Haru smiled.

It took an hour to collect and re-settle all of Haru's belongings into the Cat Bureau. This was mainly due to Haru having to do all the lifting and dragging of boxes through the streets of the city. There was also the matter of selling the furniture that she would no longer need and putting her house up for sale. Eventually though, it was all sorted out, and Haru woke the next morning to the smell of bacon frying just down the hall.

The young lady followed her nose, and her stomach followed eagerly.

"Good morning," Baron said cheerfully as he lay two plates laden with food on the set table. "I hope you don't mind, but I took the liberty of making us some breakfast. I thought it might allow you more time to paint if I dealt with the human necessities of dietary requirements."

"No, I don't mind, but if you keep feeding me potions this size, I'll end up as rotund as Mister Muta," answered Haru, delicately slicing up the fried bacon, egg, sausage and toast.

The orange cat smiled and set to his own breakfast, watching his dining companion eating more often than actually slipping his own fork between his furred lips. The food made her cheeks bulge oddly, but there was a happy, comforted look in her soft brown eyes.

"Baron," Haru said, clinking her cutlery gently onto her now empty plate.

"Yes Miss Haru?"

"Would you sit for me? I want to do something to thank you, for saving me from the king and letting me live with you."

"It would be my pleasure Miss Haru. How long will you need to prepare the canvas?"

"Give me two hours," she answered, rising hastily from the table and walking quickly down the hall – she knew better than to run on a full stomach.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Conversation, Haru had once observed, was not necessary when having someone sit for a painting. All the same, she found that between herself and Baron, there seemed to be a natural flow.

"Where was I?"

"You were telling me about your maker, the 'artisan Jason Nishii'," Haru supplied. She had started by washing on the base colours that she would need in roughly the placed they would be needed. Orange for Baron's face, red for his vest, grey for his pants, cream shirt, brown bookshelves and so on. The artist was up to delicately putting the lines in place now, as she listened to him talk in that voice, that accent, that made her want to go all gooey.

"That's right, before you distracted me by talking about cricket and tea," he returned, deliberately shifting in his wingback chair, both to get more comfortable and to disrupt Haru's work. He shifted back, he just had to move a little – he had been sitting for quite a while.

"You started it by saying he loved the sport and always had half-drunk cups lying around his workshop, and if I have to tell you one more time to sit still, you're getting a miniature of a flea," the lady artist defended, pointing her paintbrush accusingly at her sitter.

He smiled. "Yes, I suppose I did."

"Artisan Nishii," Haru prompted, returning the fine hairs of her brush to her canvas.

Baron bowed his head in submission, found an exasperated glare waiting for him when he looked up, then resumed both his still pose and his narrative.

The porcelain cat-man statuette went on to describe how he had been formed, how he had watched a partner being formed for him, and how he had come to life, and she had not.

"Louise never even blinked, but I couldn't be sad for her, because she would never know what it was to feel pain or sadness. In many ways, it is the many millions of creations that do _not_ come to life that are better off. Those of us who live must then find a way to live; we must come to terms with seeing those around us die, and just like the humans who made us, we struggle to find a reason why _we_ were chosen to have life, and not another."

"Hang on, back up a bit, did you say that your partner's name was Louise?" Haru said, interrupting again. When the Baron affirmed that she had heard him right, she asked, "Describe her?"

"She was a cat, like me, but her eyes were the purest blue, and her fur was whiter than snow. Now that I think of it, she looked rather like that young lady with the prince, Yuki I think you said her name was. Yes, Louise looked a lot like Yuki, but she wore a lacy red dress and white gloves, with fingers, and had a lovely purple hat. Miss Haru, you look pale, is something wrong?"

Baron resisted the urge to move out of his seat and hold the young woman who had told him in no uncertain terms that he was to _sit_.

"Wait right there, and _don't_ move," she said, getting up quickly from her seat before the canvas. "Believe me, I will know if you do," and with that, she left the room.

The statuette was on the verge of rising from his chair to follow Haru, having begun to worry about her being gone for so long, when she returned, something held tightly to her chest as she slowed from her jog and came to a halt before her model.

"Is this her?" she asked, releasing what turned out to be a doll from the clutches of her bosom.

"Yes," said the Baron, shocked and staring to see the doll that had shrunk with the rest of Miss Haru's luggage. He didn't remember seeing her pack it the day before. "May I enquire how she came to be in your possession, Miss Haru?"

"She's been handed down from mother to daughter for generations in my family," Haru explained. "She, and her partner, were supposed to be gifts for my … Grandmother's Grandmother's Grandmother. Very old, very precious, and very still."

"So it would seem that I was made by your ancestor," Baron said, staring at the doll that now rested in his hand. "As I understand the matter of giving life to creations, that means that you have that same sort of potential, though it's all very complicated."

Haru nodded her understanding and took back the doll, placing the delicate porcelain feline on top of the mantelpiece before returning to her canvas. She worked steadily at the portrait until the sun went down.

"Alright, you can get up now," she said, tapping her chin with the wooden end of her current paintbrush.

Baron rose from his chair, grateful for movement. He was used to being still for long periods of time as a porcelain figure, not as a breathing one. The cat gentleman walked around the artist's canvas and peered over her shoulder to look at her day's work.

"There are a couple more things that I want to do to this, but you don't have to sit for them. What do you think?" she asked.

"I think it's wonderful. So lifelike, and your brushstrokes are barely there… The work is exquisite."

"Thank you."


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

After Baron went to sleep – turning into a porcelain figurine – Haru lit a couple of candles in her room and turned once more to her now varnished canvas. She'd had an idea, talking to Baron, but she was tentative to try it.

"…_you have that same sort of potential…"_

Haru calmed her thoughts, cleared her mind, and mixed her paints. She loaded her brush and closed her eyes for a moment, breathing deeply and slowly, before she once again opened those glowing brown orbs and set to work.

She wasn't entirely sure what she was doing, but she knew what she wanted the result to be. She wanted to paint a _way_ for her and the Baron to be together. Her first thought had been to turn herself into a doll, but that was both impossible, and in no way guaranteed that she would wake up from the experiment. So many dolls didn't, after all.

Haru's second, better thought, had been to try magicking the Baron into a man.

The candles burned down, and down, and down, until they were great puddles of wax with a tiny spot of flame in the centre. Haru dropped her paintbrush into the jar of water she had been using to clean off the previous colour and sighed, content and relieved that it was finished. The candles snuffed out at last.

Haru sighed again and cautiously rose from the floor and felt her way to her bed. Finding it, she flopped gratefully and closed her eyes to sleep. She didn't sleep long. Haru hadn't just worked all day; she'd worked all night. It was about two hours after the candles ran out of anything to burn that the sun started to rise, and a loud _thump_ type sound, like someone falling, startled her awake, though her eyes drooped insistently.

She was just swinging her legs over the side of the bed, having lost the fight with herself to stay in bed, when a knock came at her door.

"Come in," she called. Haru didn't worry about not being decent, she hadn't undressed before flopping down to sleep, and she hadn't really slept for long enough for her hair to become more than just a little mussed.

"No, I think I'd better not Miss Haru, it might be inappropriate," came the Baron's voice from the other side of the door, which he had opened just a crack so that he didn't have to yell to be heard through it.

"Baron, as long as you ask me to marry you before you ask me to share your bed, you're not being inappropriate," Haru answered, standing up and searching out her hairbrush.

Silence resonated from the slightly opened door, and Haru looked up at the thin wooden barrier in wonderment. Had she hit the nail on the head?

"I just wanted to ask what you would like for breakfast," he said at last.

She had heard him swallow quietly in the silence before he spoke, and she looked back at the portrait she had re-painted during the night, turning the Baron from being a handsome cat into being a handsome man.

"Cereal please, and a nice tall glass of orange juice," she answered, trying not to think about what she might have done.

"Uh, one other thing, Miss Haru," Baron's voice was tentative, and that worried her. "I think you might have to get me to sit for you again, for the portrait. I can't account for how it happened, but my appearance seems to have altered during the night, I can't return to my porcelain state any more either."

Haru's heart leapt. Had she done it? Had she really turned Baron into a man? Would that be a good thing? – The thought suddenly occurred to her that things had been just fine before, and there had been no reason for her to change them. No reason whatsoever.

She crossed the room quickly, carefully stepping over and around her paint supplies, and yanked the door open the rest of the way, forcing herself to face Baron, who was still standing on the other side.

"Oh my," she said. Of course, she knew what she was painting. She had been painting a perfect person, according to da Vinci's golden ratio and her personal taste. However, the face she had been painting was much smaller, on canvas, and now it was looking down at her with shocked green eyes, locks of orange hair hanging around his ears and down his neck. "You're human."

"Yes."

That seemed to cover it really.

"I think it's my fault," she added, towing him into her room to see what she had done to the painting. "Sorry Baron, I don't really know what came over me, and I certainly didn't know that _this_ would happen." Haru was not going to add that she had hoped that it would, or that she had started because of the idea that it might. All those details were lost in a stupor of sleep-shortage.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

"You made me human," Baron said, recognising the picture from the previous day. He could just see the slight differences in colour where Haru must have painted over his cat ears and tail, turning him into a normal person.

"Are you mad with me?" Haru asked tentatively, afraid that he might be.

"No," he seemed a little surprised with the answer himself. Baron had thought that he might be upset to find out that someone had deliberately changed him, but Haru hadn't done it maliciously, she hadn't even done it painfully or with selfish intentions, as far as he knew anyway.

Haru breathed out. She'd been holding her breath.

"Miss Haru," Baron began, stepping back from the painting. He had been peering closely at the work. The new man opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it again with out speaking. He was silent again for a small while before finally saying, "Breakfast, I think," and leaving the room.

Haru nodded; she was still slightly numb with the realisation of what she had done half by accident.

Breakfast past in silence, and Baron cleared away when they had finished.

Haru collected the painting she had been working on – was it only the day before? – and took it once more to the courtyard where Baron and Muta had played cricket. The cricketer, catching the small red ball.

In the natural light she considered the fall of light and shadow and the drape of cloth, and applied what was in her mind to what was set before her.

"Miss Haru, I have to go out for a little while," Baron said, adjusting the top hat on his head carefully, making himself get used to how it must now sit without his ears to hold it in place. "I would feel better about leaving you if you would please stay inside. Toto will make sure you receive no uninvited guests."

"Baron, apart from Muta and the King, I am the only person who has been here in _how_ long?" Haru queried. "Nevertheless," she added, holding up her hands in submission, "I concede." She gathered her paints and went inside.

Baron sighed with relief and woke up Toto. The crow was shocked to find that the once porcelain cat now appeared to be a real human, but agreed to watch over Haru until he returned.

The once cat stepped out of the refuge, and found that, yes, he had grown to the height of a regular human. An inch or two taller than most, even. Not that it would matter, as he would continue living at the refuge, where he was only just taller than most people's knees.

It took him an hour longer than he had thought it would, but at last, he got what he had been searching for, and was able to return to the refuge.

"No one again, Baron," Toto reported, flying up to his perch once more from where he had been guarding the Bureau, on the upper balcony railing.

Baron nodded his thanks and, hand firmly around his purchase, walked into his home.

Haru was reading. She was sitting with her back propped up against the seat of his favourite chair, a thick cushion between her and the shag rug on the floor. She had finished the painting just a very short while ago, and wasn't far into the book, but her imagination was buried deeply in the words, even if her nose was not literally entrenched.

"Oh, hi Baron. How was town?" asked Haru, looking up in surprise from her book. It was one of those things, she had felt that someone was watching, and when she looked up, there he was. The young lady smiled.

"Not as large as last time I was there," he answered, the spell on his door shrinking him back to the size that he was used to. "Miss Haru, I have a proposition to put to you," the ex-cat said, looking down at the loveliness of the lady before him.

"Are you going to sit down? Or will I have to stand up to be on eye level with you while I hear this?" Haru asked, laying aside the book and sliding off her cushion slightly so that she was reclining more as she looked up at the man she had changed.

Baron smiled. Haru smiled back. The smile looked good on his now human face. Oh, it had looked nice when he was a cat too, but cat expressions were harder to read than a person's.

Careful not to tread on either her fingers or his book, Baron slid around behind Haru and sat down in his chair.

"How's that?" he said.

"Odd, and rather indicates that you're up to something, since you're not exactly one for such closeness, by your own admission," Haru answered, tilting her head back to look at him.

"That's true, but I think that I cannot change in body and remain completely the same in every other aspect of myself, so I'm being bold where I am normally more tentative." He tried to stroke Haru's hair, just gently, but her eyes hardened.

"You said you had a proposition?"

"Of marriage, if you will accept me," said Baron, withdrawing the little box from his pocket and offering it to the lady almost in his lap.

Haru didn't say anything. Her brown eyes softened once more, and she took the little box from his hand, opened it, and slipped the contents onto her left ring finger, not even looking at it. Her hand now thus adorned, she reached up to her new fiancee and gently pulled him down until their lips met. Alright, so it was upside down, but it was still a great kiss.


End file.
